Location: hawaii for the past13yrs+ but now on my way to winter in fl summer in upstate ny

Posts: 14

Taking RT 10 east from Phoenix AZ to Dunedin FL

planing on picking up my new to me 2002 newmar dutchstar 4097 dsdp in a couple of weeks . i've never driven anything that big an planing on going from phoenix az to dunedin fl taking 10 east to fla can anyone tell me info on my travel rt mahalo for any help

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I drove I-10 from Houston, Texas to Pensacola, Florida in February and that portion of the Interstate was in pretty good condition. You might want to talk to folks from Houston about an easy way to get through that town. What I saw getting through there was a nightmare!!

I-10 is an easy one to drive and you'll have a lot of open space to practice with that Newmar. Once you pass through Tucson, there isn't much of anything until Las Cruces, NM and then El Paso, TX. Spending a night in Deming, NM before Las Cruces will give you some rest before the cities. Try for cities mid-week and early in the day.

Then from El Paso to San Antonio is a lot of open space. A good spot to stop before San Antonio for fuel is Ft. Stockton. It has a nice Flying J. Stay there or in Junction.

You'll now be hitting more traffic and a nightmare for Houston. Just take an inside lane and stay in it. It'll be slow-going but you'll have driven your new rig many miles by then and you'll do just fine.

Try to fuel up in smaller towns not in the biggies. Have a great trip and enjoy that Newmar. We sure did for 10 years.

We are still on our journey following that same route. in fact we left Virginia on Dec 28, traveled I 10 to Scottsdale for the Barrett Jackson auction and then made our return trip back to Florida. We are currently in Ft. Myers enjoying the sun and warmth.
Lots of good advice in the posts above mine. We never traveled more than 350 miles in a day. It was rough going through Texas due to weather and storms. We were able to hunker down a couple of times and wait out the ice and snow.
I think if you can successfully maneuver your coach out of Phoenix, you have overcome any problems of driving this route. if you have any questions on campground we stayed you can pm me and I'll share the list of them.
Good luck and enjoy the trip. It's a great trip.

Good route. In December we followed I-10 from Phoenix all the way east to Jacksonville FL. (then south to keys)

I-12 will avoid New Orleans.

You may wish to avoid major cities "Houston" during rush hour. El Paso and San Antonio aren't to bad. We usually walmart or truck stop a couple nights, then every other day or two stop at RV park for shower, laundry, relaxation

Two places we stayed:

Van Horn, Texas (east of El Paso) right off the interstate. Mt View RV park - They have a HUGE sign out front. easy in and out, good showers and bath

Mobile Alabama - This is a nice little RV park, several miles off the interstate, (its south of US90) a little hard to find, follow the small signs off of I-10. very nice, very quite. (They took Passport - $20 a night)

As "waiter21" mentioned, use I-12 east from Baton Rouge unless you really want to drive thru NOLA. I-12 will take you back to I-10 East of Lake Poncharatrain and save you a bunch of hassels and a bad stretch of I-10 just east of NOLA.

We made this trip several times. All the advice above is good. Last time we took 1604 to bypass San Antonio on the east side, no problems on that road. Then we stopped at the Houston West RV park, about an hour south of Houston on a Saturday night and drove through Houston early on a Sunday morning without any problem. If the timing works for you that way, it's an easy trip.

If you haven't left yet, go to YouTube and search for "RV Driver Confidence" and you'll find a wonderful video produced by LazyDays in Tampa to help you learn: How to set & use your mirrors, how to make turns and how to back into a campsite.

Meanwhile... Follow the instructions in my sig line.

__________________
John E. Baker, III and Sally Baker... The Traveling Siblings! — Watch your tail swing... Keep the greasy side down and keep it 'tweeeeeeeeen the ditches, Y'all!

We just drove that route - Phoenix to Jacksonville, Fl and all the advice is good. If you can bypass Houston you'll be happier - there's construction through most of it. We went through on a Saturday afternoon and it was bumper to bumper in all 6 lanes of the freeway. And the I12 route around New Orleans is a nice drive.

Places to stay along the way:

Ft Stockton RV Park in Ft Stockton has a nice little cafe on the grounds with great food.

Traveler's World RV Park in San Antonio is a nice park, about 3 miles from the Alamo.

Gulf Coast RV Park in Beaumont is convenient to the freeway.

Pine Crest RV Park in Slidell, LA puts you across the lake from New Orleans but it's an easy drive into the city if you're doing some sightseeing - I recommend the WWII Museum! Most people recommend the French Quarter RV Park but it's very expensive and it's almost directly UNDER the freeway - I wouldn't want to drive an RV in that area!

we did I 10 in December from Los Angeles to New Port Richey. All great advice given...we
avoid ten and take interstate 12 around New Orleans...we visit New Orleans but stay at Passport America campgrounds near 12